Vitter to keep blocking Salazar raise

The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed a watchdog group’s complaint against Sen. David Vitter for blocking a salary increase for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, an attempt by the senator to pressure Salazar to increase oil and gas permits.

But Ethics Committee leaders in both parties said they will no longer tolerate actions like Vitter’s — while the Louisiana Republican is pledging not to buckle.

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The committee dismissed a complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington regarding Vitter’s blocking of a bill that would provide a $19,600 salary increase for Salazar. The raise would allow Salazar’s salary to be in line with those of other Cabinet officials.

“While the committee found that there was no substantial credible evidence that you violated the law or Senate rules, it did conclude that it is inappropriate to condition support for a Secretary’s personal salary increase directly on his or her performance of a specific official act,” committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Vice Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) wrote Vitter in a letter sent Thursday and made public Friday.

Boxer and Isakson acknowledged that “there is no clear Senate guidance addressing such conduct.” So they issued new guidance to all senators Thursday saying future attempts to tie secretaries’ pay to specific actions “will be viewed by the Committee as improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the Senate."

“While senators have long used holds on nominations to help persuade administrations to carry out or change policies, tying an incumbent Secretary’s personal salary to his or her performance of specific official act is different, places a Secretary in a precarious and potentially untenable position, and undermines a basic principle of government service,” Boxer and Isakson said in a letter dismissing a complaint against Vitter. “Had Secretary Salazar complied with this request, it would have appeared that his decision was made because of his personal interests, and not the public interest.”

"So now senators need guidance to know extortion and bribery violate Senate rules?” she said in a statement Friday. “If the ethics committee hasn't issued specific advance guidance, senators can't be held accountable for outrageous conduct? How about if the ethics committee just issues this blanket guidance: criminal conduct violates the rules."

Vitter’s fighting words may end up being a moot point. In May, Salazar asked Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to withdraw the legislation that would have boosted his salary to match other Cabinet officials. The Senate hasn’t taken any subsequent action.

Salazar makes about $19,600 less than other Cabinet secretaries because the Constitution prohibits a House or Senate member from being appointed to an executive branch job whose pay has risen during the lawmaker’s term. As a senator from Colorado, Salazar had voted to increase the salary for the Interior secretary. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted a lower salary for her post for the same reason.

But when Reid suggested raising Salazar’s salary from its current $180,000, Vitter blocked the legislation, saying he first wanted to see the rate of new deepwater oil and gas drilling permits for exploratory wells get back to where it was before the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

CREW said Vitter’s move was tantamount to attempted bribery and filed the ethics complaint in June 2011, one month after Vitter began blocking the salary increase.

A Vitter spokesman retorted at the time, “If CREW thinks this is bribery, then it should file complaints against Harry Reid for buying votes with the Louisiana Purchase and Cornhusker Kickback."

John Bresnahan contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:33 p.m. on March 30, 2012.